Revealed July 28, 2026 05:29PM
When Aurélien Sanchez reached the northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Path on July 23, he felt blended feelings. On the one hand, he known as it one of the best reminiscence of his life. He’d simply set the quickest recognized time, ending the two,578-mile path in simply 45 days, 20 hours, and 10 minutes—shaving 16 hours off the earlier document. His girlfriend, Lucille Malgouyres, was there ready for him. He collapsed beside the trailhead marker and broke down into tears of pleasure.
However, the exhausted, sleep-deprived Sanchez additionally felt a looming sense of dread. He knew he nonetheless had a 30-mile slog to get from the end line again to his automobile. The path wasn’t carried out with him simply but.
“I used to be so relieved it was over, the official document, and that I made it. However I used to be so anxious about the way in which again as effectively,” he advised Backpacker in an interview simply days after he set the document. “So I additionally felt a variety of emotion after I was again on the automobile.”
Sanchez, a French ultrarunner, set his sights on the PCT a yr in the past. In 2018, he clinched the FKT on the 223-mile John Muir Path by way of Whitney Portal, ending in 3 days, 3 hours, 55 minutes, and 10 seconds. That path overlaps with the PCT for about 160 miles, and ever since he set foot on it, Sanchez has had a dream to do your complete factor.
“I by no means thought it was attainable for me as a result of it’s such a protracted journey,” he stated. However in 2025, he was speaking together with his girlfriend, Malgouyres, who can be an ultrarunner. She inspired him, they usually determined to strive it the next yr. Out of the blue, Sanchez’s dream began to really feel inside attain.
On June 8, 2026, Sanchez’s crew (Malgouyres and her cousin, Martin Tullot) watched because the athlete took off alongside the PCT from the southern terminus, racing the clock and chasing the document.
Pushing by sleep deprivation, accidents, and burn scars
When Backpacker spoke with Sanchez, he was driving from Oregon to California to catch his flight residence to France the next day. His toes have been nonetheless swollen from his FKT try, however he was in any other case recovering effectively and in good spirits.
“Mentally, I simply must relaxation for a few weeks,” he stated.
The earlier PCT supported FKT document was set by Karel Sabbe in 2023, who completed the PCT in 46 days, 12 hours, and 50 minutes. Sabbe’s tempo was roughly 60 miles per day. Sanchez stated he felt very assured that he couldn’t solely beat that point, however smash it.
“My purpose was to shave three days off the document,” he stated. “One within the desert, one within the Sierra, one ultimately.”
Nevertheless, alongside the way in which, he encountered challenges that derailed that formidable purpose. First, he stated, sleep deprivation within the desert of Southern California actually messed with him. He was operating at evening for 12 nights straight to beat the warmth, and it jangled his inner clock. He moved rather more slowly because of lack of sleep than he’d hoped and didn’t shave off the preliminary desert day.
Then, he bumped into a large 100-mile wildfire burn space in California. Bushes lay criss-crossed throughout the path. Thick vegetation was so overgrown that it hid the trail in lots of locations, making navigation powerful and gradual. He misplaced many hours bushwhacking by that part of the path.
“The opposite problem was damage within the Sierra,” Sanchez stated. Whereas passing by the mountains, he injured his ankle so badly that he needed to take a complete zero day.
Fortunately, although, when he received up the next morning, his ankle felt ok to proceed ahead. However he’d misplaced a variety of time, and the clock was nonetheless ticking.
A nail-biting end
It was a nail-biting race to the end. For days, Sanchez was trailing simply an hour behind the document set in 2023. The ghost of Sabbe was within reach, simply forward of him, and the end line was drawing nearer every single day. However Sanchez knew his alternative to assert the FKT was drawing nearer, too.
“[Sabbe] needed to decelerate due to a detour because of a forest hearth,” he stated. It was truly two wildfires that required hikers on the PCT that yr to take a 100-mile reroute. By the point Sanchez received to that very same spot on the path, the detour was lengthy gone. He kicked it into excessive gear and made the ultimate push, overtaking Sabbe’s FKT time.
“That’s why I used to be capable of make 16 hours much less [than the record] ultimately,” he stated.
On July 23, when he arrived on the PCT’s northern terminus, the FKT was his. “It was so intense, emotional. I used to be crying with Lucille and Martin,” he stated.
However he wasn’t out of the woods but. Forward lay that dreaded 30-mile trek again to the automobile.
He made it, after all. After which he had a couple of days to hang around in Oregon whereas he recovered, spent a while with new mates he’d met on the path, and let his accomplishment sink in.
Reflecting on the journey, he stated, “It was an important path for me.”
*Sanchez’s FKT remains to be pending verification by fastestknowntime.com, which shares a father or mother firm with Backpacker.
